During the challenge we hoped that by not heating the house we would save a bit of money on the gas bill. Surely it would reduce from the same period last year if we didn’t turn on the gas space heater.
So you can imagine my surprise when our gas bill arrived in the post and it was slightly higher than our winter bill last year! A daily average of 80.24 MJ per day up from 75.46 MJ last winter. WTF????
Hang on a minute, I thought, as I scoured over the details. There has to be something wrong; how can it be so?
Once I had calmed down, I managed to figure out that it was an estimate only. I hate that. The excuse on the bill was “dog” which is strange because the dogs are rarely outside during the day except for ablutions – especially during winter – and we usually wait out there with them.
Anyway, I quickly read the gas meter and worked out that we had actually only used a daily average of 36.77 MJ per day! Success at last. In reality, it cut my bill in half.
But here’s the rub. Because I would have to pay to have meter re-read, we chose to pay the bill and get a credit next billing cycle. There should be $75 coming my way.
So it was worthwhile in the end, financially. We didn’t feel uncomfortable and if we did start to feel a chill, we put on another layer. If you are interested in how we fared during over the winter, check out the other Brass Monkey Challenge posts.
Now that we know that we can survive without heating, next year will be easy. Especially when in a few short days we will have extra insulation in the ceiling cavity and in mid October the north facing windows get replaced with double glazed units. Not only will we have no issues keeping the place warm next winter, it will also keep out the heat in summer.
Looking forward to reporting our next liveable home update on Wednesday!
We are lucky and have a friend who owns land and allows us to get cut down their dead trees so we get wood for out fire free. I’d hate to think what it would cost us to heat our home. We live in a semi rural area and have no gas connected to th house. Elec only
We have a fireplace to keep us warm in winter but sadly in this old house of ours it gets pretty hot in summer. We have insulated the roof and floor and added block out curtains but with timber walls there is no lining them and we will not be double glazing since we intend to sell.
Nice work guys. Well done and what a scare that bill must have given you. We’re still waiting for a meter read for our electricity. Now that we have the panels I am hoping to see a large drop in usage.
I saw this graph on Facebook when you posted it but there was no explanation (that I could see), so I’m glad to finally find out that you haven’t gone mad and that everything is as it should be. Phew!